CHAPTER V

JINGHIS KHAN’S TRIUMPHANT ADVANCE BEYOND THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Many provinces of China had been subject to foreign rule for three centuries. After the fall of the Tang dynasty, which had ruled the whole country from 618 to 907, this immense Empire fell to commanders of provinces and was cut up into ten states co-existent and separate. Intestine wars, the result of this parceling, favored the rise of a new power in Northern Asia.

The Kitans, who formed a part of the Manchu stock, held that country from the Sungari southward as far as the present Shan hai kuan, and from the Khingan range on the west to Corea. These people had for a long time been vassals of Tartar Khans, and next of Chinese Emperors. They were divided into eight tribes, each with its own chief or manager. Abaki, the head of the Sheliyu tribe, which owned the district known at the present as Parin, gained supreme power in 907, and used the whole strength of the Kitans to subdue Northern Asia. In 916, he proclaimed himself sovereign, and when he died, ten years later, his dominion extended eastward to the ocean, and westward to the Golden Mountains or to the Altai.

Tekoan, the son of this first Kitan ruler, by giving the aid of his arms to a rebel chieftain in China, secured victory, and a throne for him. In return for such service the newly made Emperor, who fixed his residence or capital at the present Kai fong fu on the south bank of the Hoang Ho, or Yellow River, ceded sixteen districts to Tekoan in Pehche li, Shan si and Liao tung, engaging also to furnish three hundred thousand pieces of silk as his annual tribute.

The new Chinese Emperor took the position of vassal to the Kitan, and termed himself his grandson and subject. The successor to this Chinese ruler sought to modify these conditions. Tekoan made war on him; conquered all the provinces north of the Hoang Ho, seized Pien (Kai fong fu), captured the Emperor and sent him to regions north of China.

Following Chinese usage the Kitan took a new name for his dynasty, calling it Liao, that is Iron.

After the fall of the Tang dynasty five petty lines followed one another on the throne of Kai fong fu in the course of five decades. On the ruins of these dynasties in 960 the house of Sung united nearly all China. This house made war on the Kitans, but failed to win back the districts previously ceded to them, and in 1004, because of hostile

## action by the Kitans, the Sung Emperor, to gain peace, engaged to pay

an annual tribute both in silk and silver.

The Kitan Empire lasted two centuries and assumed in its functions Chinese forms, at least externally, but Chinese methods made it feeble. After strong and warlike chiefs came weak and timid Emperors. At last a great man named Aguta rose among the Jutchis, a nomad people living in the lands between the Amoor, the Eastern Ocean and the Sungari River. These formed part of the same Tungus stock as did the Kitans, but they were untouched as yet by luxury.

In 1114 Aguta gained a victory over the Kitans, and the following year proclaimed himself Emperor of the Jutchis. The new State he called Aidjin Kurun (Kin kwe in Chinese), that is, Golden Kingdom. He would not act, he said, like the Kitans, who had taken the name of a metal that is eaten by rust very easily and ruined.

Aguta subdued the whole Kitan Empire, and died in 1123. Two years later his successor seized Yeliu yen hi, the ninth and last Emperor of the Kitan dynasty, which had endured nine years and two centuries.

The Sung Emperor had abetted Aguta, and even urged him towards victory, hoping thus to regain the lands lying between the Yellow Sea and the Yellow River. The Kitans were crushed in the conflict, but the new power (the Kin dynasty) was more dangerous for him than the old, as he learned to his cost very quickly. In 1125 the Kin Emperor invaded North China; the year following he reached the Hoang Ho, or Yellow River, and besieged Kai fong fu which lies south of it. The Sung Emperor, who visited the camp of the invader to find peace there if possible, was seized and sent to Manchuria with his family. One of his brothers, living then in the South, was made sovereign by the Chinese. The Kins advanced farther, reached the Yang tse and took Lin ngan in the Che kiang province. They forced the Emperor to acknowledge their conquest and promise a yearly payment of twenty-five thousand pieces of silk with two hundred and fifty thousand ounces of silver, and to avow himself a vassal in addition.

The rivers Hoai and Han formed the boundary between the two Empires, and now the Kin Empire reached a line almost half way between the great rivers Hoang Ho and Yang tse. The Sung Emperor moved his capital to Lin ngan, known as Han chau somewhat later. The Kins took up arms to extend their new Empire still farther southward, but were confronted by failure. The war ended in 1165 by a treaty which retained former boundaries, but decreased the Sung tribute. The southern Emperor, moreover, instead of being a vassal to him of the north, acquired the relation of a nephew to an uncle. But in 1206 the Sung Emperor began a new war which brought defeat to him. To restore peace he was forced now to pay the original tribute.

About the middle of the 12th century the Kins had chosen the present Pekin as their residence; they called it Chong tu, or the middle capital. Lords over one third of China, they had adopted the customs and laws of that country. Their dominion extended on the north beyond China proper to Lake Baikal and the great Amoor River. The Kitans, once masters, had now become subjects to the Kin dynasty, but in 1162 they revolted; after that they were by force brought down to obedience.

Some years before, the Kins had had a struggle with the Mongols which for the Kins proved disastrous. They ended it by making concessions. The Mongol chieftain then took the title of Khan, which he kept ever after.

Jinghis, in beginning a war against China, was really attacking the Northern, or Kin dynasty, which had driven out that of the Kitans, hence, very naturally, he turned for co-operation to the Kitans. Madaku, the Kin Emperor, died in November 1209, and in 1210 an envoy informed Jinghis Khan that Chong hei, the eighth of the dynasty, had succeeded Madaku. The envoy demanded that the vassal, as he claimed to consider Jinghis, should receive the announcement while kneeling, in accordance with the etiquette of China.

“Who is this new Emperor?” asked Jinghis of the envoy.

“Prince Chong hei.”

On hearing the name Jinghis spat toward the South, and then added: “I thought that the Son of Heaven must be lofty and uncommon, but how is this idiot Chong hei to sit on a throne, and why should I lower myself in his presence?” Then he mounted his steed and rode away without further word or explanation. He summoned his leaders at once, and said to them: “My forefathers suffered very greatly, as ye know, from Chinese monarchs; and still those same monarchs failed to conquer this land of ours after centuries of effort. Heaven has granted me victory over every opponent and permitted me to mount the highest round of fortune. If ye act with me faithfully, that same Heaven will grant a glorious triumph over China. Through this triumph the Mongols will win the greatest wealth and magnificence; their fame will never cease among nations.”

All were delighted, all praised their conquering ruler. They agreed with him then to send an envoy to the Altyn Khan (Golden Khan) [7] with the following message: “Of course it has come to thy knowledge that we, by Heaven’s favor, have been chosen from among all the Mongols to hold the reins of Empire and of guidance. The fame of our conquering host has gone forth, and is spreading. We are planting our banners over all the earth’s surface, and soon every people and all nations will submit without delay or hesitation to our prosperous direction, and share in its many benefactions. But should any rise and resist, their houses, goods, property and dependents will be ruined without mercy. Praise and honor to High Heaven, our dominion is so well ordered that we can visit China. With us will go instruments of every sort, and crushing weapons. With us will march an army which is like a roaring ocean. We can meet enmity or friendship with the same tranquil feeling. If the Golden Khan in wisdom selects the way of friendship and concord, and meets us in congress, we will secure to him the management of China in proper form and strong possession. If he cannot come himself, let him send his honored sons to us as hostages with treasures. But should he resist, which Heaven forbid, we must wait for warfare and for slaughter, which will last till Heaven puts the diadem of victory and power on the head of him whom it chooses, and puts the rags of misery and want on him whom it desires to wear them.”

On receiving these words, such as no man had ever sent a sovereign in China, Chong hei burst into a blazing rage and dismissed the envoy with contempt and with injury. “If Jinghis has planned war and slaughter against us,” replied he, “who can prevent him from tempting fortune?”

The last word had been uttered, and both sides made ready now for warfare.

Directing Tuguchar to guard home lands from every possible disorder, Jinghis moved from the Kerulon in March, 1211, to subdue the Chinese Empire. But before he left his native place he visited a lofty mountain. On the summit he loosed his kaftan, put his girdle round his neck and called High Heaven to help him: “Boundless Heaven,” said he, “I am going to avenge the blood of Berkai and Ambagai, my uncles whom the Altyn Khans put to death with infamy and torture. If thou favor me send aid from out the lofty places, but on earth send men to help me; send also spirits good and evil.”

His four sons, Juchi, Jagatai, Ogotai and Tului, accompanied the Mongol sovereign.

This army of invasion was held together by the sternest discipline and made up of mounted men only. The units of this force were ten, one hundred, one thousand and ten thousand warriors. The orders of the sovereign were given to the chiefs of ten thousand, and by them to subordinates. Each man had a strong rawhide armor and helmet; he carried a lance and a sabre with an ax, a bow, and a quiver; he was followed by a number of horses, which had no food save that which they found as they traveled. Immense herds of cattle were driven in the rear of the army. In time of forced marches each man carried with him some milk and a small portion of flesh food.

To reach the Great Wall the Mongols crossed a space of about twelve hundred miles consisting in part of the desert known as Sha mo in Chinese and as the Gobi in Mongol. The first success of the invaders was made easier by Ala Kush Tegin of the Onguts, whose duty it was to guard the Great Wall for the Emperor, but who favored the Mongols. In no long time Tai tong fu, called also Si king, an Imperial court northwest of Yen king or Chong tu, the Pekin of the present, was invested. The Chinese commander Kin kien sent Mingan, a trusted officer, to reconnoitre the Mongols. Mingan deserted and gave all needed information about places to the enemy, who attacked Kin kien and routed his forces; their mounted men trampled his infantry and cut it to pieces. The Mongols pressed on toward the chief Chinese army, which did not wait to engage them.

The success of the invasion was enormous. Expeditions were made to the walls of Chong tu the great northern capital. The terror stricken Emperor prepared to flee southward, but was stopped by his guards, who swore to fight to the death for their sovereign. During 1212 the Mongols succeeded at all points, and cut up the Kin armies wherever they met them. Still Jinghis could not capture Tai tong fu, though in August, 1212, he besieged it in person. He was wounded in front of the place by an arrow, and withdrew to the north for a period.

The Mongol invasion of China was aided now by an insurrection of Kitans. At the outbreak of hostilities Lyuko, a prince of the dispossessed Kitan dynasty, an officer serving in the Kin army, fled and levied men on his own account. He was ready to add his strength to Jinghis, when the latter sent Antchin Noyon to conclude an alliance against the common enemy. The two men ascended Mount Yen to finish the compact. On the summit they slew a white stallion and a black bull for their sacrifice. Turning then to the north they both held an arrow and broke it. Lyuko pledged his faith to Jinghis, and Antchin, in the name of his master, swore to uphold the Kitan prince against the Kin sovereign.

There was need of prompt help, since an army sixty thousand in number was marching to annihilate Lyuko. Gold and high dignities were promised to him who should bring the rebel’s head to the Emperor. Jinghis sent three thousand warriors. With these, and his own troops, Lyuko defeated the Emperor’s army, and took all its baggage, which he sent to Jinghis, and received then a new reinforcement. Chepé Noyon was despatched to give aid in winning the land of the Kitans, and he gave it successfully. Master now among the Kitans, who rushed in great crowds to him, Lyuko, with the consent of Jinghis, proclaimed himself King of Liao.

In 1213 Jinghis resumed his activity in China, and again there was slaughter on all sides. The Mongol armies swept on till they almost touched the gates of Chong tu, where bloody scenes were enacted. The year before, Hushaku, the Kin commander, had been stripped of his office and exiled. He was placed in command now in spite of protests from the governor, Tuktani, and others. Hushaku took command north of Chong tu, and, though the Mongols were near him, he passed his time mainly in hunting. Enraged because the Emperor cast blame on this conduct, he took a revenge which he had planned since his own reinstatement. He spread a report that Tuktani was rousing rebellion, and feigned that he, Hushaku, had been summoned to the city to repress it. Fearing military opposition he raised a false alarm to mask his real object. Horsemen rushed in hot haste to the city declaring that Mongols had come to the suburbs. Hushaku sent for Tuktani, the governor, as if to take counsel, and then with his own hand he slew him. Next he replaced the guard of the Emperor with his personal followers, and transferred to another edifice the Emperor, who was slain that same day by a eunuch.

Hushaku wished supreme power for himself, but saw soon that his plans were impossible. The throne fell to Utubu, the late monarch’s brother.

Chepé Noyon had returned from the Kitans and was marching on the capital at that time. Hushaku had a wound in the foot, so he sent Kaoki to meet the Mongols, and threatened death should he come back defeated. Kaoki was forced to retreat on Chong tu, after desperate fighting. Fearing death from his chief he resolved to anticipate, and rushed to seize his superior and slay him. Hushaku tried to escape, but fell from his own garden wall while climbing it. Kaoki’s people seized the man and then cut his head off. Kaoki grasped the head, bore it in hot haste to the palace, and asked for judgment immediately. The Emperor not only gave pardon, but made Kaoki chief commander.

While the Mongols were attacking the Kin Empire in the north, Tangut was attacking on the west, and in 1213 took King chiu, a border city.

Tangut and China had passed eighty years in mutual good feeling and friendship when the Tangut sovereign, attacked by Jinghis for the third time, asked aid from the Kin sovereign, but having failed to receive it, made an agreement (1210) with the Mongols, and severed relations with China. The Empire was weakened by defections so numerous that Jinghis Khan formed fifty-six brigades of men with officers and generals who had passed from the Chinese to his service. These were joined to his army, and now began an attack on all those lands bounded on the west and south by the Hoang Ho or Yellow River and on the east by the Hoang Hai or Yellow Sea, and forming the provinces of Shan si, Pe che li and Shan tung.

The Mongols sacked ninety flourishing cities, and in all that rich and great region there were only nine places which, through self-defence, escaped ruin. The booty was immense in gold and silk stuffs, in captives male and female, and in horses and cattle.

This great raid took place in the first months of 1214. All the Mongol armies were assembled with their booty in April of that year, at a place some leagues west of Chong tu. Jinghis would permit no attack on that capital. To the Emperor he sent two officers with the following message: “All places north of the Hoang Ho are mine, save Chong tu, which is all that remains in thy service. Heaven has brought thee down to this impotence; were I to harass thee still further I should dread Heaven’s anger. Wilt thou treat my army well, and satisfy the generals?”

Kaoki wished to attack, but the counsels of other men triumphed. Envoys were sent to the invader, and peace was concluded. Jinghis received as wife the daughter of Chong hei, the late Emperor, with immense gifts in gold and precious objects. Five hundred youths, as many maidens, and three thousand horses went forth with his bride to the conqueror.

Peace now concluded with Jinghis, Utubu proclaimed complete amnesty to all, but not feeling safe, he left his heir in Chong tu, and set out for Pien king, the present Kai fong fu, better known as Nan king, on the southern bank of the Hoang Ho. On the way he attempted to deprive the Kara Kitans in his escort of the horses and arrows which had been given them. They revolted immediately, chose as leader one Choda and turned then toward Chong tu. Two leagues from the capital Choda met armed resistance, and though victorious, he sent envoys at once to Jinghis. These envoys tendered submission, and asked for aid straightway.

The Mongol Khan did not hesitate; he sent a division of Mongols under Samuka, and a division of Jutchis under Mingan, with orders to join the Kara Kitans and capture the capital. Mukuli, the best Mongol leader in China, was sent at the same time to strengthen Lyuko, from whom a Kin army had retaken the greater part of his kingdom.

When Utubu heard of this new Mongol inroad he summoned his son to Nan king immediately. Chong tu, the capital, was poorly provisioned, the Mongols were near it, their ferocity was famous; the besieged were in terror. Utubu hurried forward a great transport of food under Li ing, with a numerous army. The Mongols attacked this strong army. Li ing, who was drunk when they fell on him, was killed. The battle was lost, and the transport was seized and swept off by the victors. At news of this dreadful disaster the troops of two other Kin generals dispersed and the men went home to their families.

Connection with the city was broken. The investment was merciless; want came, and next famine, with hunger so cruel that the dead were devoured, and then living men killed to be eaten. Fu sing, the governor, proposed to Chin chong, the commandant, to attack the Mongols with every force in the city, and die arms in hand or else conquer. Chin chong had not this view of duty. Fu sing, unwilling to witness the loss of the city in which he was governor, made ready to die with propriety. He gave all he had to his servitors, took poison, and ended his earthly existence.

Chin chong hastened then to escape before the Mongols could enter. The Imperial princesses implored him to take them from the city, and save them, but, not wishing to hamper his flight, Chin chong asked some time to prepare for their journey. Once beyond the city, however, he fled and left those poor princesses to the Mongols. A great slaughter took place in the capital. The palace was fired, and burned, as is said, a whole month and even longer. Jinghis sent three officers to receive Imperial plunder, and give due praise to Mingan for his siege work.

Mingan had hardly captured Chong tu when Jinghis sent Samuka with ten thousand men to fall on Nan king and capture the Emperor. Samuka marched up so close to the city that he was only two leagues from it, but his troops being few, he was forced to retreat empty-handed. He made a second attempt the year following and was nearer success without reaching it.

Meanwhile the Kin dynasty was approaching its doom, and the day of extinction.

In the spring of 1216 Jinghis, from his home on the Kerulon, again sent Subotai against the brother and three sons of Tukta Bijhi, the last Khan of the Merkits. Tuguchar was to help should the need come. Subotai met the Merkits near the Jem River in the Altai and defeated them. Two sons of Tukta Bijhi and Kutu, his brother, were slain in the action; the third son, Kultuk Khan, a great archer, was captured and taken to Juchi, eldest son of Jinghis. When Juchi asked for a proof of his skill, the young man sent an arrow into a goal, and then split that first arrow with a second one. Juchi begged his father to spare this Kultuk, [8] but in vain. This great archer, the last son of Tukta Bijhi, had to die like the others.

While the Mongol Khan was in China, Baitulu, who was chief of the Tumats, withdrew from obedience. At command of Jinghis, Boroul marched in 1217 against the Tumats and crushed them, but lost his own life in the conflict, which was close and very bitter.

Jinghis had asked aid of the Kirghis. But they too rose against him, and Juchi was sent to reduce this recalcitrant people. He did the work thoroughly before leaving the upper waters of the Irtish and the Yenissei.

In 1214 Mukuli had been sent, as we remember, to the Kitans, whose country had been greatly overrun by Kin armies. During the two years which followed, this best of all Mongol leaders won back that whole region by excellent strategy, finesse, and grand fighting. This work was indispensable in the conquest of China. During 1217 this great general appeared before Jinghis encamped then on the Tula. Mukuli was rewarded beyond all other generals up to that day, and after it. Jinghis praised him in public, lauded his great mental gifts, and his services, called him Kwe Wang, or prince in the Empire, and made this title hereditary. He created him lieutenant commanding in China, and gave him a seal made of gold as a sign of authority. “I have conquered the North,” said Jinghis, “subdue thou the South for me.” And he dismissed him with an army of Mongols and Kitans, with the Jutchis, or Manchus, to help them.

In 1218 Jinghis marched on Tangut for the fourth time and brought it to obedience. During that year he received the submission of Corea. Next his activity was turned to a new side, and soon we shall see the opening scenes in that mighty movement begun by Jinghis and continued by his descendants, and still later resumed by his relative, the tremendous Timur, that World Shaking Limper and father of the Mongol rulers of India.

The first place which called the Grand Khan was Kara Kitai on the west, then conterminous with his own growing Empire. Kara Kitai had the following origin: When Kitan rule in North China was overthrown by the Kins, Yeliu Tashi, a relative of the last Kitan Emperor, and also his leading commander, took farewell of his sovereign in 1123, and with two hundred men journeyed westward. Governors and chiefs of tribes in those Chinese provinces through which he passed showed him homage as a descendant of Apaki, and gave armed warriors to strengthen him. At the head of these and his own men, he went farther. Bilik, prince of the Uigurs, from whom he asked a passage, went out to receive him at the boundary, with a large gift of sheep, horses, and camels. Bilik gave also as hostages a number of his sons and grandsons, and recognized the renowned man as overlord.

Yeliu conquered Kashgar, Yarkend, Khotan and Turkistan. Turkistan was at that time under Nahmud Khan, the twentieth prince of his dynasty, a ruler claiming descent from Afrasiab, so famous in Persian story. Nahmud was reduced to the possession of Transoxiana, and, as this region too was attacked somewhat later by Kara Kitans, he became Yeliu’s vassal. Kwaresm met soon the same fate as Transoxiana; Yeliu’s troops brought sword and flame to it, and Atsiz, the second prince of the dynasty of the Kwaresmian Shahs, obtained peace by paying thirty thousand gold coins for it yearly.

When Yeliu had brought under his dominion all regions between the Yaxartes and the Gobi desert, and between the headwaters of the Irtish and the Pamir highlands, he took the title of Gurkhan of Kara Kitai, and fixed his chief residence at Bela Sagun on the next large stream east of the Yaxartes River. In 1136, while preparing for war against the Kin sovereigns to win back the Empire which they had snatched from his family, he died, leaving only one son, then a minor. Till 1142 this son was under the tutelage of his mother. Dying in 1155 he left a son, Chiluku, for whom his aunt, Pussuen, was regent till 1167 when he came to majority. When the son of the last Naiman ruler came in 1208 to seek an asylum in Kara Kitai, Chiluku was still ruling. He showed the fleeing Khan a kind welcome, and gave him his daughter in marriage.

Chiluku was occupied mainly in hunting wild beasts, and in seeking for pleasure. This weakness caused the defection of great vassals: the Idikut of the Uigurs; the Khan of Transoxiana; the Kwaresmian Shah, and now it led his perfidious new son-in-law to dethrone him.

The Naiman Khan had attracted some of Chiluku’s commanders, and on collecting the wreck of his late father’s army he saw himself at the head of considerable forces. To begin his plot easily he begged leave of the Gurkhan to assemble the scattered remnants of the Naiman army, then wandering through northeastern lands of the Kara Kitan Empire. These men might be employed, he said, in Chiluku’s service. The weak and kindly old sovereign consented, gave his daughter’s husband rich presents, and confirmed his title Gutchluk, or the Strong Man. The false son-in-law went on his mission. From Iwil, Kayalik and Bishbalik, crowds rushed to his standard. He was joined by the chief of the Merkits, who had fled before the Mongols. These men began to win wealth by incursions in every direction. Further hope of booty caused other bands to follow quickly. Still Gutchluk could not seize the Empire without an ally, and the Empire, or at least a large part of it, was his object.

He turned to Shah Mohammed who had withdrawn from subjection to Chiluku, and had received even the homage of Osman, the Khan ruling then over Transoxiana and Samarkand. Gutchluk asked Shah Mohammed to fall on the Empire, and seize the western part for this service. The Shah gave a favorable answer. Meanwhile a Kara Kitan army was despatched to Samarkand by Chiluku to bring Osman back to obedience. Shah Mohammed hastened to render aid to his vassal, but before his arrival the Kara Kitans were recalled to meet Gutchluk, who had now opened war on his father-in-law, the Gurkhan.

While Chiluku’s army was absent in Samarkand, Gutchluk seized in Uzkend the state treasures, and hurried then by forced marches to surprise Bela Sagun. Chiluku, though old, took the field promptly in person, and defeated his son-in-law, who retired in despair after losing a large force of warriors who were killed or taken captive.

Meanwhile Shah Mohammed had crossed the western boundary accompanied by Osman, and met the Kara Kitan forces commanded by Tanigu. He attacked these and captured the commander. The defeated troops while marching home robbed their own fellow subjects and plundered without distinction; Bela Sagun, which preferred Mohammed, would not open its gates to them. Besieged by the troops of their own sovereign they fought for sixteen days, hoping daily to see the Shah’s army. The city was taken by assault, and the people were slaughtered. Fifty-seven thousand persons perished under the sword edge.

As Kara Kitan treasures had vanished, the state treasury was empty. Mahmud Bai, an immensely rich general who feared for his own wealth and substance, advised the Gurkhan to force a restoration of all that had been seized by Gutchluk and his followers. The army chiefs, unwilling to yield up their plunder, were furious on hearing this proposal. Gutchluk appeared then on a sudden, and seized his father-in-law, the Gurkhan. Once master of the sovereign’s person he used sovereign authority, so Chiluku, without power himself, retained a vain title till death took him off two years later.

In 1218 the Mongol Khan marched westward, but sent Chepé Noyon in advance, with an army twenty-five thousand strong, against the Kara Kitan usurper, his enemy. Gutchluk fled from Kashgar with a part of his forces. On entering the city Chepé proclaimed freedom of religion to all men. The inhabitants massacred Gutchluk’s warriors, who had been quartered in their houses. Chepé hurried off in pursuit of the fugitive, and never drew bridle till he had hunted him over the Pamir, and caught him in the Badakshan mountains, where he cut his head off.

When Jinghis heard of this he commanded Chepé not to be proud of success, for pride had undone Wang Khan of the Keraits and the Taiyang of the Naimans, as well as Gutchluk, and brought ruin to every recent ruler.

This victorious Chepé some years later carried Mongol arms to Armenia across Georgia and a large part of Russia. He was of the Yissuts, a Mongol tribe which had fought against Jinghis, known at that time as Temudjin. On a day Temudjin wrought a crushing defeat on the Yissuts; Chepé fled with some others to the mountains, and hid there from death, which he looked on as certain in case he were captured. One day when Temudjin was out hunting his beaters inclosed and caught Chepé. The Khan wished to slay him, but Boörchu, his earliest comrade and one of his four chosen leaders, begged for a combat with Chepé. Temudjin agreed, and gave him a white muzzled horse for the trial. Boörchu shot an arrow which failed to reach Chepé. Chepé, more adroit than his enemy, sent a shaft which brought down the horse under him, and the next instant he rushed away with lightning speed. Reduced to want some time later Chepé offered his service to Temudjin, the strong victor. Temudjin knew the man’s worth and accepted his offer. The Khan made Chepé a chief of ten men to begin with, then of a hundred, later on of a thousand, and at last of ten thousand warriors.

When Chepé brought back Gutchluk’s head he wished to give a recompense for the white muzzled horse which he killed when Boörchu attacked him, so in Kashgar he collected a thousand white muzzled horses and brought them to Jinghis as a present.

##